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Explore mind-blowing revelations about our solar system, from the moon's strange rusting to the true distance to Jupiter. Discover the shocking truth behind the fate of our solar system and what lies ahead!
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00:00It may seem like the best way to get to some planet from Earth
00:03is to patiently wait for it to come as close as possible.
00:06Yeah, there it is.
00:07And then take off on a rocket pointed in the planet's direction.
00:11Whoa! Bye, Mom! See ya!
00:14Wait, why didn't this method work?
00:18First off, the planets, including our own,
00:21constantly move following their elliptical orbits
00:24at speeds of tens of miles per second.
00:26So your rocket kind of needs to be put in an elliptical orbit, right?
00:31Kind of like aiming a dart at a moving target
00:34or throwing a surprise party for your friend.
00:36You don't want the surprise to come at the wrong moment.
00:41Also, when we send spacecraft to other planets,
00:45we want to use as little energy as possible.
00:47And to get to any planet out there in the easiest way possible,
00:51you actually need a special trick called the Holman Transfer Orbit.
00:58Let's say you want to travel to Mars.
01:00You have to wait until Earth and the red planet are in the right positions
01:04so you don't get lost up there or run out of fuel somewhere halfway.
01:09Traveling there using a Holman Transfer Orbit would take about 259 days.
01:14That's because the transfer orbit between Earth and Mars
01:17takes 517 days to complete a full orbit,
01:21and the trip to Mars covers half of that orbit.
01:26Couldn't you just travel faster?
01:28Well, yeah, but that would waste way more fuel,
01:31which would make the launch more complicated,
01:33since the rocket would be too heavy.
01:36Basically, it would be like a dog biting its own tail.
01:40If you could travel at the speed of light,
01:42it would take you 12.5 minutes.
01:46Also, when your rocket finally gets to the other planet,
01:49it still needs to slow down to go into orbit around it
01:52or even land on its surface.
01:54This means it will use more energy.
01:57But you can try to use as little as possible
01:59and maybe go with things such as parachutes or aerodynamic braking.
02:04It's kind of like if you were riding your skateboard and needed to stop.
02:08You wouldn't just crash into a wall.
02:10You'd use your foot or something to slow down gradually.
02:16Traveling to Venus is a bit quicker.
02:18It would take you about 146 days.
02:21That's not bad.
02:22But the problem is you'd still need to wait
02:25for about two years before coming back to Earth.
02:28That's necessary because the planets need to realign themselves properly
02:32so that the spacecraft can meet Earth's orbit when it returns.
02:36So, in total, a round trip to Venus would take around two years in one month,
02:41including the waiting time.
02:43And that waiting time wouldn't be that pleasant,
02:45considering that's the hottest planet in our solar system.
02:50Let's say you want to travel to Jupiter.
02:53How long will that take?
02:54It depends on a lot of things,
02:57mainly its position.
02:58Plus, how fast are you traveling?
03:00If you wanted to stay in orbit and explore Jupiter up close,
03:04it would take way longer.
03:06So, definitely not a weekend trip.
03:11Using the Hohmann transfer,
03:13you'd need several years to get to Jupiter.
03:15That's because a Hohmann transfer puts focus on transferring an object
03:19from one orbit to another.
03:21Jupiter is in a higher orbit than our home planet.
03:24So, to finish the transfer,
03:26your rocket would need to travel along a path
03:29that would take it past the orbit of our gas giant.
03:32So, the rocket would need to speed up when it gets closer to Jupiter
03:35to avoid falling back towards the Sun,
03:38and then slow down when it passes Jupiter
03:41to avoid flying off into space.
03:43It's like a car speeding up to climb a hill
03:46and then slowing down as it goes down the other side.
03:49This is how the spacecraft uses the gravity of Jupiter
03:52to move into orbit around the gas giant.
03:56It's hard to tell the exact distance between Jupiter and Earth.
04:00They're both traveling around the Sun
04:02in different oval-shaped paths.
04:04Sometimes they get really close to each other,
04:07and other times they're really far apart.
04:09It's like they're playing tag.
04:11But, on average,
04:12they're 444 million miles away from each other.
04:16When Jupiter is farthest away from Earth,
04:18it's a whopping 601 million miles away.
04:21That's like driving around the entire Earth 24,000 times.
04:26But if you could travel to Jupiter at the speed of light,
04:30on average, you'd get there in 40 minutes.
04:34There's this super-fast spacecraft we need to mention,
04:37the Parker Solar Probe.
04:39Imagine you're on a really fast roller coaster,
04:42moving at incredible speeds that are hard to fathom.
04:44The roller coaster would actually be our Parker Solar Probe.
04:49It's flying closer and closer to the Sun,
04:51breaking speed records along the way.
04:56During its 10th close flyby of the Sun in November 2021,
05:00the Parker Solar Probe managed to reach a top speed
05:03of more than 360,000 miles per hour.
05:07That's like traveling around the whole Earth in several minutes.
05:10And get this,
05:12when the spacecraft gets even closer to the Sun in December 2024,
05:16it's expected to reach a speed of 430,000 miles per hour.
05:21Yep, not a good idea to have a big lunch before this roller coaster.
05:26Now, let's say you're on the Parker Solar Probe
05:30and you want to take a detour to visit Jupiter.
05:32If you were able to travel in a straight line
05:35at the same speed the Parker Solar Probe was going during its 10th flyby,
05:39it would only take you 42 days to reach Jupiter at its closest approach.
05:44On their average distance,
05:45you'd need a little bit longer to get there,
05:4751 days.
05:51You'd also have to consider the duration of your trip.
05:54There are two ways your rocket can arrive at a planet,
05:57either by going into orbit around the planet
05:59or by just flying by really fast.
06:02If the spacecraft is supposed to go into orbit,
06:05it needs to slow down when it gets close to the planet.
06:08Imagine it gets captured by the planet's gravity
06:11and starts going around it.
06:12Better to slow it down when it arrives then.
06:15And this means burning lots of extra fuel
06:18and making your trip longer.
06:21Here's something interesting.
06:22To travel faster,
06:24we can use something called gravity assist.
06:27That means we use the gravity of planets
06:29and other objects in space
06:31to give us a little push
06:33and speed our precious rocket up.
06:35That's how the Voyager spacecraft
06:37were able to travel to Saturn and beyond.
06:40But even with a gravity assist,
06:42it still takes a really long time
06:44to travel to other stars.
06:46For example,
06:48the star that's closest to us
06:49is Proxima Centauri,
06:51and it's still 4.2 light-years away.
06:54Let's change the method now
06:56compared to the previous examples.
06:58If we traveled at the same speed
07:00as Voyager 1,
07:01it would take us 75,000 years to get there.
07:05If you prefer to take a trip to Uranus,
07:08know that the distance goes up to 2 billion miles.
07:11Yes, depending on the spot
07:12where the planets are during their orbits.
07:14It took about 9.5 years
07:17for Voyager 2 to reach Uranus.
07:21But Uranus is cold,
07:22and as an ice giant,
07:24it doesn't even have a real surface to land on.
07:27Most of the planet is swirling fluids anyway.
07:30Not only would you have nowhere to land there,
07:32but your rocket would hardly even manage
07:35to pass through the atmosphere of Uranus unscathed.
07:38The temperatures and pressures
07:39are extreme up there
07:40and would just destroy
07:42your entire metal spacecraft.
07:45Hey, look at this blazing monster.
07:47It's a white dwarf.
07:49These stars are known for gobbling up
07:51passing objects,
07:52and one day,
07:53these objects might be the planets
07:55of our own solar system.
07:57According to a new study,
07:58parts of the solar system
07:59will be pulled into a white dwarf star,
08:02crushed up,
08:03and eventually ground into a fine dust
08:05like coffee beans in a blade grinder.
08:07Hey, you like that analogy?
08:09Now, white dwarfs are a final stage of a star's life.
08:13It's a small but very dense star
08:15that's typically the size of a planet,
08:17the result of a low-mass star
08:19exhausting all the nuclear fuel in its center
08:21and losing its outer layers as a planetary nebula.
08:26When our sun turns into a white dwarf,
08:28and it is bound to happen sometime,
08:31it'll destroy the asteroids and moons
08:33around Mars and Jupiter.
08:35They will be pulverized by its gravity.
08:37Earth, though,
08:38will be swallowed up
08:39even before the sun turns into a white dwarf.
08:42But it won't happen
08:43for another 6 billion years.
08:46Researchers working on this topic
08:48have come to such conclusions
08:49by observing what happened to space bodies,
08:52asteroids, moons, and planets
08:53that were passing close to 3 white dwarfs.
08:56For 17 years,
08:58they observed and analyzed transits.
09:00That's when the brightness of a white dwarf dips
09:03because of an object in a stable orbit
09:05passing in front of it.
09:06In the case of white dwarfs,
09:08we can predict such transits
09:10and use them to study the stars themselves
09:12and celestial objects passing by them.
09:16So, when something gets too close
09:19to a white dwarf star,
09:20the star's immense gravity
09:22rips it into smaller and smaller pieces of debris.
09:25The team also found out
09:27that transits of such debris are chaotic.
09:29Plus, this debris is oddly shaped,
09:32which means that it is being devoured further.
09:35The first white dwarf
09:37used for studying the transit process,
09:39this here guy,
09:40seemed steady and well-behaved
09:42over the last few years.
09:43Well, until scientists found some evidence
09:46of a massive catastrophic event
09:48that occurred in 2010 or so.
09:50The next star dims irregularly
09:52every couple of months
09:53before brightening again.
09:55And the third dwarf star
09:56used to behave close
09:57to theoretical predictions.
09:59It had transits
10:00that varied in numbers, shapes, and depths.
10:03But the latest study has shown
10:05that the transits
10:05are now completely gone.
10:07And this indicates
10:08the unpredicted nature of transits.
10:11One minute you see them,
10:12the next, poof.
10:13The reason might be
10:15the chaotic environment
10:16they have to exist in.
10:17As for our own solar system
10:19and our planet in general,
10:21its fate looks pretty sad.
10:23Earth will be swallowed
10:24by the expanding sun
10:26even before our star
10:28turns into a white dwarf.
10:29As for the rest of the solar system,
10:31located further from the sun,
10:33some of the asteroids
10:34between Mars and Jupiter,
10:36as well as some of Jupiter's moons,
10:38will be destroyed later.
10:39Oh well.
10:40They're likely to get dislodged
10:41and travel too close
10:43to the white dwarf.
10:46Now, at the same time,
10:48astronomers aren't 100% sure
10:50that it's exactly what will happen
10:52with our solar system.
10:53So I guess we'll just have to wait and see.
10:56For like 6 billion years.
10:58Speaking of white dwarfs,
11:00scientists have recently found one
11:02that has a bizarre metallic scar
11:04on its surface.
11:05This blemish could have formed
11:06after the star ripped up
11:08and ate a tiny planet orbiting it.
11:11White dwarfs,
11:11with traces of metal
11:12in their atmospheres aren't rare.
11:14These traces are left by planets
11:16falling into stars,
11:17affected by their gravity.
11:19Experts have long thought
11:20that such metal
11:21should be distributed evenly
11:23across the surface
11:24of such polluted white dwarfs.
11:26But a new study
11:27has discovered a white dwarf
11:29with a weird concentrated
11:30patch of metal.
11:31This star was monitored
11:33over a period of two months
11:35with the help of
11:35the Very Large Telescope in Chile.
11:38The researchers found
11:39an opaque patch of metal.
11:41It was located over
11:42one of the star's magnetic poles
11:44and blocked some of the star's light
11:46as it rotated.
11:47Based on this position,
11:48astronomers concluded
11:50that the material
11:51could have been funneled
11:52into the star
11:52by its powerful magnetic field.
11:54This process is similar
11:56to one causing auroras on Earth,
11:58where charged particles
11:59follow the magnetic field
12:00to the surface.
12:04Now, the planet destroyed
12:05by the white dwarf
12:06was most likely very small,
12:08around the same size
12:09as asteroid Vesta
12:11in our solar system,
12:12which is a mere 326 miles across.
12:15Its debris is now prominently
12:17displayed on the host star's surface.
12:19It makes it easier
12:20for researchers to examine
12:22what the planet's geochemistry was
12:24before it was devoured.
12:26Such a study might even turn out
12:27to be one of the best ways
12:29to observe small worlds
12:30beyond the solar system,
12:31even if such a world
12:33has already met its demise.
12:35There might be many more
12:36scarred stars like this one.
12:38The one in question
12:39was the first,
12:40but probably not the last.
12:42Even better,
12:43astronomers have already
12:44discovered two white dwarfs
12:46that seem to have
12:47similar scars.
12:48Making repeat observations
12:50of such stars
12:51might help us unearth
12:52pardon the pun,
12:53no, I meant to do that,
12:55unearth even more secrets
12:56and make more discoveries.
12:58Another bizarre white dwarf
13:00discovered not long ago
13:01seems to have stopped cooling
13:03due to the formation
13:04of internal crystals.
13:05It challenges existing theories
13:07on star aging
13:08and also questions the method
13:10of stellar age estimation.
13:12But scientists might have understood
13:14why it may be happening.
13:18White dwarfs are believed
13:19to be dead stars.
13:21They keep cooling down over time,
13:23and normally this process
13:24can't be reversed or paused.
13:26But in 2019,
13:28the European Space Agency's
13:29GAIA satellite
13:30discovered a number
13:32of white dwarf stars
13:33that had stopped cooling
13:34for more than 8 billion years.
13:36It might mean that
13:37some white dwarfs
13:38can generate a lot of extra energy,
13:41which is at odds
13:42with the classical
13:42dead star theory.
13:44At first,
13:44astronomers couldn't figure out
13:46how it might happen.
13:47But in the end,
13:48more than 97% of stars
13:50in the Milky Way galaxy
13:52turn into white dwarfs.
13:53Astronomers have long thought
13:55that such stars
13:56are at the end of their lives.
13:58After depleting
13:59their nuclear energy source,
14:01they stop producing heat
14:02and cool down.
14:04Eventually,
14:04the dense plasma
14:05in their insides
14:06freezes into a solid state
14:08and the star solidifies
14:09from inside out.
14:11The whole process
14:12can take billions of years.
14:15But the new research claims
14:16that in some white dwarfs,
14:18this dense plasma
14:19doesn't simply freeze.
14:21Instead,
14:22its solid crystals
14:23forming upon freezing
14:24become less dense
14:26than the liquid
14:27and start floating around.
14:28They displace
14:29the heavier liquid downward.
14:31The movement
14:32of heavier material
14:33toward the center
14:34of a white dwarf
14:34releases gravitational energy.
14:37And this energy
14:38is enough to interrupt
14:39the star's cooling process
14:40and halt it
14:41for billions of years.
14:43Now,
14:43this explanation
14:44actually matches
14:45all of the properties
14:46of the unusual
14:47white dwarf population.
14:48But this is the first time
14:50such a transport mechanism
14:52has been seen
14:53in any type of star.
14:55And that's incredibly exciting.
14:56A totally new
14:57astrophysical phenomenon.
14:59But why does it happen
15:01in some stars
15:02but not in others?
15:03It most likely depends
15:05on the composition
15:05of the star.
15:06You see,
15:07some white dwarf stars
15:08are formed
15:09by the merger
15:09of two different stars.
15:11When they collide
15:12and form a white dwarf,
15:13it changes the composition
15:15of the star,
15:16which allows the formation
15:17of floating crystals.
15:20So,
15:21this discovery
15:21might mean
15:22that astronomers
15:23will have to review
15:24the ways they use
15:25to determine
15:25the age of stars.
15:27At the moment,
15:28white dwarfs
15:29are often used
15:30as age indicators.
15:31The cooler a white dwarf is,
15:33the older it's believed to be.
15:35But now,
15:36we already know
15:36about possible delays
15:38in the cooling process
15:39of some dwarfs.
15:40It makes the popular
15:41age determination method
15:43more unreliable.
15:44Some stars
15:45of a given temperature
15:46may be billions
15:47of years older
15:48than we previously thought.
15:50The recently uncovered
15:51transport mechanism
15:53within white dwarfs
15:54means that some
15:55of these stars
15:56can be shining
15:56as bright as normal
15:58for billions of years.
15:59This complicates
16:00age dating
16:01and the use
16:02of white dwarfs
16:02to reconstruct
16:03the formation
16:04of our galaxy.
16:05Hey,
16:06stay tuned!
16:06The moon is rusting
16:08and chances are
16:10it's happening
16:10because of Earth.
16:12You'd say that
16:13since they're more than
16:14230,000 miles apart,
16:16they can hardly
16:17directly influence
16:18each other
16:19in such a way.
16:20But they do
16:21actually have
16:22a special connection.
16:24The moon affects
16:25our home planet
16:26as well
16:27and you can see it
16:28while observing
16:28ocean tides.
16:29As Earth rotates,
16:32the moon's gravitational
16:33force pulls the water
16:34on the nearest side
16:36of Earth.
16:36It creates
16:37a bulge.
16:38At the same time,
16:40another bulge forms
16:41on the opposite side
16:42because our planet
16:43rotates
16:44and it causes
16:45a centrifugal force.
16:46And then,
16:47the planet continues
16:49to rotate
16:49underneath
16:50these bulges,
16:51which is why
16:52we have too low
16:53and too high tides
16:55every day.
16:56Plus,
16:57the moon wobbles
16:58every now and then,
16:59tilts more or less,
17:00and causes changes
17:01in ocean tides.
17:03And in return,
17:05Earth's atmosphere
17:06is making our satellite
17:07rusty.
17:08Rust is that
17:09reddish substance
17:10you see on old gates
17:11or nails.
17:12Oh, and you know
17:13vermilion cliffs
17:14and the Grand Canyon?
17:15They also have
17:16that specific red color
17:18thanks to rusty iron
17:19in the rocks.
17:20It forms when
17:21iron reacts
17:22with oxygen
17:23and water.
17:24Rust is common
17:26even on Mars.
17:27The planet's
17:27trademark color
17:28comes from the rust
17:29that's been there
17:30for a very long time.
17:32That's how the red planet
17:33got its nickname
17:34in the first place.
17:36Normally,
17:36you wouldn't say
17:37the moon is a place
17:38that would rust
17:39that easily
17:39since it's dry
17:40and doesn't really
17:41have an atmosphere.
17:42But a spacecraft
17:43studied the moon
17:44back in 2008
17:46and detected
17:47spectra,
17:48wavelengths of light
17:49that were reflecting
17:50off different surfaces
17:51of the moon.
17:52That's why
17:53it could analyze
17:54the lunar surface better.
17:55The data it brought
17:57showed that the lunar poles
17:58had different compositions
18:00than the rest of the moon.
18:01They had rocks
18:02that contained
18:03a lot of hematite.
18:05That's a specific type
18:06of iron oxide
18:07or simply rust.
18:10No one expected that
18:11because there shouldn't
18:12be so much rust
18:13on the moon
18:14considering the conditions there.
18:16But we know
18:17that there's some water
18:18up there
18:18on the surface
18:19on the surface
18:19of our satellite.
18:20That's why
18:21a few new theories
18:22popped out
18:23about different materials
18:24the moon
18:25could be hiding.
18:26It's possible
18:27that they formed
18:28because water
18:28had reacted
18:29with the rocks.
18:30For iron to get
18:32this rusty hue,
18:33it needs something
18:34we call
18:34an oxidizer.
18:36That's a molecule
18:37that removes electrons
18:38from materials
18:39like iron,
18:40such as oxygen.
18:41But the solar wind
18:42keeps hitting the moon
18:43all the time
18:44and it brings
18:45hydrogen with it.
18:46And hydrogen
18:47has the opposite effect.
18:49It gives electrons
18:50to other molecules.
18:52Earth has its shield
18:53from the solar wind.
18:54It's our magnetic field.
18:56But the moon
18:56doesn't have such protection
18:58and because of that,
18:59rust shouldn't be able
19:00to form on its surface.
19:02But this process
19:03still happens
19:04and it could be
19:05Earth's fault.
19:07The moon itself
19:08doesn't have an atmosphere
19:10that could provide
19:10enough oxygen
19:11for iron to rust.
19:13But apparently,
19:14our planet
19:15is generous enough
19:16to donate
19:16some of its own atmosphere.
19:18The oxygen
19:19from our atmosphere
19:20travels all the way
19:22to the moon
19:22following something
19:23called magnetotail.
19:25That's a long extension
19:26of Earth's magnetic field
19:28which can reach
19:29the near side
19:30of the moon.
19:31That's exactly
19:32where most
19:32of the hematite
19:33was found.
19:35And during a full moon,
19:37the magnetotail
19:38blocks 99%
19:39of the solar wind
19:40which would normally
19:41influence the moon more.
19:43It's like
19:44there's a temporary curtain
19:45over its surface
19:46which gives enough time
19:47for rust to form.
19:49But there's still
19:50one important thing
19:51necessary
19:51for the appearance
19:52of rust.
19:53Water.
19:54It's not like
19:55you can find water
19:56that easily
19:57if you decide
19:58to take a walk
19:58across the moon.
19:59Most of it
20:00is frozen
20:01and hidden in areas
20:02that always remain
20:03in cold shadows.
20:05Those spots
20:06are far away
20:07from where most
20:08of the hematite
20:09was discovered.
20:09So it's hard
20:10to tell
20:11how the water
20:12got there.
20:13But there's
20:14an interesting idea.
20:16All those dust particles
20:17that hit the moon
20:18might be freeing
20:20free molecules
20:21of water
20:21that are locked
20:22in the surface layer
20:23of the satellite.
20:24This is how water
20:25ends up
20:26mixed with iron.
20:27We don't know
20:28exactly what
20:29these dust particles
20:30consist of.
20:31they might be
20:32carrying some water
20:33too.
20:33As they hit
20:34the lunar surface
20:35this might create
20:36heat which boosts
20:38the oxidation process
20:39and more rust forms.
20:41So our planet
20:43does certain things
20:44that change the moon
20:45but humans
20:46do the same.
20:47A probe that landed
20:48on the lunar surface
20:49back in 1959
20:50was the first
20:51human-made object
20:52that touched the moon.
20:54That's also
20:55when we started
20:56altering the moon
20:57in unpredictable ways.
20:59Scientists call this
21:00the lunar Anthropocene.
21:02It's like an analogy
21:04with Earth's Anthropocene
21:06a period when
21:07human activity
21:07made an impact
21:08on the planet.
21:09It's not like
21:10we can choose
21:11a certain starting point
21:12when such an activity
21:13began.
21:14But we now know
21:16that things we have done
21:17over the history
21:18of our existence
21:18have really changed
21:20the environment
21:20of our home planet.
21:22We don't have
21:23any people living
21:24on the moon yet
21:25but we've already
21:26left some traces there.
21:28After humans
21:29first came to the moon
21:30we've had many missions there.
21:32We left some landers
21:33and flags
21:34moved lunar soil
21:35brought golf balls
21:36scientific equipment
21:38and even
21:39some human waste.
21:41Plans for the future?
21:42Send more missions
21:43up there
21:44and even potentially
21:45create an infrastructure
21:46where some of us
21:47could live
21:48study the moon's resources
21:49and send them
21:51back to Earth.
21:52That's why it's important
21:54to talk about
21:54the lunar Anthropocene
21:56to remind ourselves
21:57we have to be responsible
21:59and take care
22:00of our heritage.
22:02Many people
22:03are confused
22:03about why we sometimes
22:05see the moon
22:06during the day.
22:07Some even believe
22:08it's something new
22:09that didn't happen before
22:10especially after
22:12they started sharing
22:12a low-res picture
22:14of what looks like
22:15a full moon
22:16in the middle of the day.
22:18Some have pretty
22:19unusual ideas
22:20that the sun
22:21isn't the same color
22:22as it was before
22:23either.
22:24Allegedly
22:25it used to be
22:26more yellow.
22:27The sun hasn't
22:28changed its color.
22:29It's still blue-green.
22:31But it's possible
22:33that we saw it
22:33as more yellow
22:34when we were younger
22:35because before
22:36pollution wasn't as bad.
22:38And when it comes
22:39to the moon
22:39we can see it
22:40both at night
22:41and during the day.
22:43It's brighter at night
22:44because there's no light
22:45coming from the sun.
22:46But it's not like
22:47it goes anywhere
22:48during the day.
22:49It's still there.
22:50But we just don't see it
22:51during the new moon phase.
22:54That lasts
22:55a couple of days
22:55and during that period
22:57the moon comes
22:58pretty close
22:58to the sun.
22:59The scattered light
23:00coming from the sun
23:01makes our satellite
23:03less visible to us.
23:05Speaking of the moon phases
23:07they're easy to recognize
23:08when you know
23:09what to pay attention to.
23:11First
23:12there's the black moon
23:13which can mean
23:13a couple of things.
23:15One definition
23:16says that it occurs
23:17when we have
23:17two new moons
23:18in a month.
23:20Another one claims
23:21that the black moon
23:22happens when there's
23:23no new moon
23:23in a month
23:24and that only happens
23:26in February.
23:27A blue moon
23:28is not called that
23:29because of the color.
23:30It's the third full moon
23:32in a season
23:32that has four full moons.
23:34And a super moon
23:35occurs when a full moon
23:37coincides
23:38with the moon's
23:38closest approach
23:39to Earth
23:40in its elliptical orbit.
23:41That's why
23:42it looks bigger
23:43than usual.
23:45Sometimes
23:46you can look up
23:46to the night sky
23:47and see an eerily
23:48red sphere up there.
23:50It's not about
23:51signs that tell us
23:52that the end
23:52of the world
23:53is coming
23:53or that werewolves
23:54are roaming around.
23:55But yep,
23:56Blood Moon
23:57is a good inspiration
23:58for stories like that.
24:00In reality,
24:01it's just an
24:02astronomical event
24:03when our planet
24:04casts a reddish shadow
24:05on the moon.
24:06And that happens
24:07when Earth
24:08comes between the moon
24:09and the sun
24:10which is called
24:10a total lunar eclipse.
24:13Earth's little companion
24:14catches some red light
24:15coming from our atmosphere
24:16and that's why
24:17you see
24:18that specific color.
24:20both once
24:20and then
24:20we'll beran of love.
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